A.S.Pushkin
and the Institution of Marriage
A. Charumati Ramdas
‘Love’ happens to
be an important theme of A.S.Pushkin’s works and consequently women occupy an
important place in his works. Pushkin does not consider woman just as an object
of love. She is pure, pious, beautiful, genius, source of inspiration for him.
In his personal life Pushkin was attracted to many women, who loved him, his
talent, and his brilliance. But he did not publicly make fun of them or
ridicule them after a certain love affair got over. More than love, it was the
bond of marriage between a man and a woman, which was pious to Pushkin. He held
this bond in high esteem and many a times tried to demonstrate how sacred the
institution of marriage is for a woman, how faithful she is to her husband and
how a husband too fights to save the dignity of a married woman and goes to the
extent of not only sacrificing his life but even after death he safeguards the honour
of his wife. In this paper, an attempt is made to explore Pushkin’s attitude
towards the Institution of Marriage in general and his heroines in particular.
I have chosen six
works of Pushkin for this purpose out of which his masterpiece Eugene Onegin
was written during (1823-1831). While he was busy with Eugene Onegin, Pushkin
also wrote A Romance in Letters (1829), Tales of Ivan Petrovich
Belkin (Sept – Oct 1831), Small Tragedies (Nov 1831). Dubrovsky was
completed in 1833. While Eugene Onegin (the first Russian realistic
novel) and The Stony Guest (from the Small Tragedies) are written
in verses, the remaining works: The Station Master, Snow Storm, The Young
Peasant Woman and Dubrovsky are written in prose.
Though Eugene
Onegin is considered as the true picture of high society of Pushkin’s time,
the relationship between Tatyana and Eugene represents Pushkin’s views about
love, marriage and the Institution of marriage. But before we look into the
tragedy of Eugene Onegin, let us stop for a while at the station where old
Samson Vyrin, Dunya’s father is working as ‘The Station Master’. Dunya – the
young, beautiful, intelligent daughter of a petty, class fourteen government
servant was abducted by the hussar – Minsky. The father, unaware of Dunya’s
desire to elope with Minsky and her attempt to change her future for the
better, keeps worrying about his daughter. He even goes to Petersburg and
requests MInsky to give him back his daughter, but Minsky refuses by saying
that they love each other. Begging for pardon from Samson Vyrin, Minsky
promises that he would never leave Dunya, but the old man remained apprehensive
about her future until his death. He
knows that ‘she is not the first, nor will she be the last to be
abducted by these young men, and who, today live in all comforts but tomorrow
sweep the streets of Petersburg.’ He prefers death for Dunya, rather than
living such a disgraceful life. In this story, apart from the theme of ‘the
little, poor, exploited man’, the theme of love between Dunya and Minsky as
well occupies an important place and Pushkin, unlike the old father of Dunya,
chooses a happy end for this love. At the end of the story, after Samson
Vyrin’s death, a rich lady with three kids and a nurse comes in a troika and
pays her homage to the old man at his grave. It was Dunya.
So, Pushkin does
not like love just for love’s sake, for enjoyment’s sake, he wants to see it
cemented in the bond of marriage irrespective of the lovers’ financial status.
By showing marriage between Minsky and Dunya Pushkin has proved this.
While Dunya was
daughter of a poor, illiterate station master, the heroine of ‘Romance in
Letters’ – Liza, though from a noble family, is also poor. She rushes to her
grandmother in their native village when she notices that young and rich
Vladimir has fallen for her. Afraid that he would not marry her because of her
poverty, she evades him, but Vladimir follows her to the village. He is
impressed by her beauty and intelligence and marries her. Thus, we see that
Pushkin is interested in converting love into marriage.
But the lovers do
not always manage to get married. If the girl is married to some other person,
how does she react to it? In the Young Peasant Woman, Aleksei and
Akulina are in love with each other, while their parents dislike each other.
Alyosha’s father Berestov and Akulina’s father Muromsky(who in reality is
Liza’s father) hate each other. Liza has heard a lot about Alyosha and in order
to meet him, she goes to the forest in the guise of a peasant woman Akulina.
Alyosha starts loving her and Akulina too reciprocates. It so happens, that
Berestov and Muromsky, who were enemies till yesterday, become good friends and
decide that their children should be married to each other. Alyoshka is invited
to Muromsky along with his father and Liza, scared that her secret would be
out, puts on funny make up on her face, dresses up ridiculously, so Alyosha
fails to recognize her. He decides to tell Muromsky that he cannot marry the
latter’s daughter and goes to him the next day. As soon as he enters the house,
he sees his Akulina reading his letter in the drawing room. The riddle is
solved and they are married. But the heroine of Snow Storm, Masha
Gavrilovna, has to face a lot of trauma before she is united to her husband –
not to her lover. The story is like this:
Masha Gavrilovna
loves Vladimir and knowing that her parents will not agree to her marriage with
poor Vladimir, hatches a plan. Masha and Vladimir decide to meet in the old
church and get married secretly. Masha reaches there in a carriage sent by
Vladimir, but Vladimir loses his way due to severe snow storm and cannot reach
the church in time. Next morning, when he reaches there, he does not find
anyone. Masha comes back to her house and falls sick. Thus pass four years. Her
father dies and she goes to her native village. Masha does not want to marry
any one, and Burmin, the protagonist, loves her so much that she starts feeling
some affection for him. But Burmin never proposes to her. On the eve of his
departure from the village, he confessed to her that he was married, but he
does not know who his wife is, nor does he know whether he will ever be able to
see her. It so happened that four years ago, on a stormy night, he lost his way
and while looking for a shelter, spots some light nearby and goes there. It was
an old church. As soon as he entered the church, the people present over there
exclaim: ‘Oh God, good that you reached in time or the bride would have
collapsed. He is married to a young girl present there, he also does not refuse
and when they were asked to kiss each other, the girl looked at his face and
screamed: ‘It is not Him’ and she fell unconscious. Burmin came out from there
and went his way. He did not know who the girl was, which village or which
church it was. He had taken the whole thing in a very light way, but somewhere,
deep in his heart, he had the feeling that he was married and this feeling
prevented him from proposing to Masha or to any other girl. As soon as Burmin
finished his story, Masha exclaimed: “so, it was you! And you did not recognize
me?” Now Burmin carefully looked at her and the next moment he was at her feet.
Here we see that
though the marriage took place like in a game, like in a dream, though there
were no witnesses, both, the husband and the wife, remained faithful to each
other. Neither Burmin married any other girl, nor did Masha contact her lover
Vladimir, nor did Vladimir ever meet her. So, the bond of marriage had a sacred
meaning for Pushkin and his characters never thought of being unfaithful to
each other.
Heroines of Eugene
Onegin and Dubrovsky also act in the same way. When Tatyana Larina,
who expresses her love to Onegin, is rejected by him, she gets married to
another noble person. Eugene, a play boy that he was, does not find her
attractive. After killing his friend Lensky in a duel, he goes away from that
village and meets Tatyana in Moscow, after a few years, at a ball. This time he
is shocked by her beauty and starts following her. He even writes a few letters
to her expressing his love, but Tatyana never answers them. Ultimately, unable
to bear the trauma, Onegin rushes to her house and finds her alone there. He
falls at her feet, now Tatyana asks him, “Then – in the village – you rejected
my love. You did not see anything special in me then. What is it now that drags
you towards me? Is it the wealth, or my position in the society, or my
husband’s status? But, though I still love you, I am betrothed to someone else
and I shall always remain faithful to him”.
Heroine of Dubrovsky
– Masha (Maria Kirilovna) – also meets the same fate. When the two best
friends, Kirill Petrovich Troekurov and Andrei Gavrilovich Dubrovsky turned
into enemies, Troekurov confiscates the whole estate of Dubrovsky pleading that
it had belonged him since ages. Andrei Gavrilovich dies and his son Vladimir
Andreevich Dubrovsky, unable to find a shelter, turns into a dacoit. He comes
to Troekurov house in the guise of French teacher with the sole aim of taking
revenge upon him, but instead, falls in love with Masha. When Troekurov comes to
know about the real identity of the French teacher, Dubrovsky goes away, taking
a promise from Masha that she will be his, and in case of any emergency send a message
to Dubrovsky, who would come to her rescue.
Things take an
unexpected turn, an old noble man, proposes to Masha. Her father is too happy
to accept the offer. Masha sends word to Dubrovsky, who comes to her rescue,
but it was too late! The marriage ceremony was already over and when Dubrovsky
attacks the people accompanying the bride and groom to their village and tells
Masha, “You are free!” she answers, : No. It is too late now. I am married, I
am Vereisky’s wife.”
“What are you saying?” screamed Dubrovsky, “no,
you are not his wife you were forced to marry him, you never agreed…”
“I did agree. I have taken oath,” she protested
in firm voice, “Vereisky is my husband, please ask your men to free him, and
leave me with him. I did not deceive. I waited for you till the last minute…But
now, I say, it’s too late. Leave us!”
Once given in
marriage to someone, Pushkin’s heroine remains faithful to him not only during
his lifetime, but even after his death she does not forget him. Stony Guest is
the story of Dona Anna, who after her husband Don Alvar was killed by Don Guan,
goes to the church every evening and prays before the statue of Don Alvar. Don
Guan by chance sees her and starts loving her.
Though poor Dona Anna
was asked to marry rich Don Alvar by her mother, she remained faithful to him.
But Don Guan manages to get an invitation from her and expresses his love!
Before visiting Dona Anna, he, in an ironical way, invites the ‘statue’ also to
come to Dona Anna’s house. Don Guan goes to Dona Anna and when he was about to
kiss her, the statue enters the room declaring that he has come on the
invitation extended to him, commands Don Guan to leave Dona Anna and orders Don
Guan to shake hands with him. Don Guan, unable to free himself from the grip of
stony statue, collapses. Thus Dona Anna’s honour is saved by the statue of her
husband.
Here we see another
dimension to the Institution of Marriage.
For Pushkin,
faithfulness of wife alone is not enough. He has shown that the Man tries his
best to save the sanctity of Marriage; he protects his wife during his
lifetime, as well as after his death. Stony Guest is a good example of
man’s devotion to his wife. And why only Stony Guest, we have seen that
Lensky calls Eugene Onegin for a duel, when Onegin tried to win over Tanya, to
whom Lensky was engaged. Tanya was the symbol of his prestige, which he could
not manage to lose, and gets killed in the duel, for the sake of her.
Minsky, for the
same reason, refuses to give back Samson Vyrin his daughter Dunya and Burmin
declares that he can’t marry Masha Gavrilovna as he was already married to
someone by accident whose face also he does not remember.
It is worth
noticing that Pushkin’s views about the Institution of Marriage were not confined
to his literary works alone, they were precious to him as well, and that’s why
he called Dantes for the duel on knowing about the rumours of his affair with
Pushkin’s wife. Ironically, Pushkin too sacrificed his life to save the honour
of his wife!
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